What if~Texas remained it's own nation?
Texas. America's 28th State. The Lone Star State. There are a lot of things you can say about Texas. It is home to 25 Million People (nearly 30% of the population of the United States) and is one of the largest economies of the world (even comparable to some nations in Europe). Now, you may or may not hear about a secession movement in the State of Texas where the population wishes for their beloved state to be independent from the United States. But you probably didn't know that Texas was *once* an Independent nation. Called the Republic of Texas which wanted to secede from Mexico (which was a newly formed Government after it defeated the waning Spanish Empire). Then, Texas became it's own sovereign nation for about 9 years before becoming a state. But, what if Texas remained independent? But first, I have to give you a history lesson. Just scroll down if you want to go to the Alternate History segment of this page. History After Mexico won it's own independence from the now crumbling Spanish Empire, there was inner political turmoil as the Mexican Government was trying to organize itself. In the early 1830's, one of Mexico's Presidents: Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, re-organizes the Mexican Government by dissmissing the Mexican Senate and turning Mexico into a Military Dictatorship. This causes angered ripples within Mexico and it's territories, especially the area around the Rio Grande River, where it is now vying for independence from Mexico. In this region, the White Americans as well as some Native people living in the region (called the Region of Tejas) planned to rebel against Mexico. However, this caught wind by Santa Ana as he (personally) formed an army to quell this brand new rebellion. The Battle of The Alamo In early 1836, Santa Ana's personal army has reached the American military installation known as The Alamo which was also the home to Future Folk Heroes such as Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. In the early morning hours, Santa Ana's army attacked (which was supposed to be a surprise attack) The Texan Rebels were seriously outnumbered and were also taken by surprise. The Alamo soon fell, and Santa Ana's army killed everybody that was inside (including Crockett and Bowie). Texas Continues Eventhough Mexico won the Battle of The Alamo, but this wouldn't stop Tejas from continuing their rebellion. One of the other military leaders: Sam Houston (who would go on to be the first President of the Texas Republic) was infuriated at the massacre at The Alamo and massed his own forces to chase down Santa Ana's army, after around 5 weeks Houston's forces caught up to Santa Ana at a village called San Jacinto. The Battle of San Jacinto With great anger and fury: Houston's forces attacked (even chanting "Remember The Alamo") within just a few days, the Texan rebels defeat Santa Ana who was forced to return to Mexico where he was weakened and then deposed via a Military Coup. With Texas' victory at San Jacinto, Texas has won it's independence. However, it was only independent for about 9 years. Only because most Texan rebels were under the Preconceived Notion that the United States would annex it as soon as it won it's revolution, but the USA wasn't ready to Annex Texas just yet. But eventually the USA took on Texas thanks to the Polk Administration, so it became the 28th state ratified by the US Constitution in late 1845. This will also infuriate Mexico which refused to recognize Texas' sovereignty and thus led to the Mexican-American War. What if? Now, it's time to ask the question: What if Texas remained independent? There are 2 separate scenarios for this to happen. Scenario 1: The USA doesn't take on Texas Texas won it's revolution, and just like in our reality the United States refuses to annex Texas. There are a lot of reasons why the United States didn't want to annex Texas right away, and one of the biggest of them all is slavery. Most of the White Americans that immigrated to Texas came from the southern states where slavery was practiced, not too mention that those southerners are also criminals and even murderers. Nevertheless, this issue circulated around the US Government for at least 9 years as there are a lot of congressmen that wanted the nation to annex Texas, and others that did not. The main reason why Texas joined the US Union is because of President Polk who wanted the USA to expand westward. But, let's say in this alternate reality, Polk loses the election and the main focus of American politics was to maintain the political balance of North and South. With this, Texas remains independent for at least another decade as the Texas issue was put on the back burner. Scenario 2: Texas doesn't join the USA Texas is an independent nation as a result of winning it's revolution. But instead of Sam Houston and his Texas Democratic party, it's the Texas Nationalist party (led by Mirabeau LaMarr) was the pre-dominant political party in Texas. Lamarr's Political party actually wanted to refuse US annexation and be a bigger country, and even try to take the other Mexican clamined territory (e.g., New Mexico, Arizona and California). Lamarr refused US Annexation in our reality when he became Texas' second President. But let's say in this alternate reality, he wins again instead of Houston and even tries to annex the territories west of Texas. Of course, this would spark another war against Mexico, and Texas simply doesn't have the resources nor the manpower to fight another full fledged war against Mexico, and more than likely would be taken by Mexico, and this may or may not prompt the United States to go to war with Mexico, and Texas would be taken by the United States. Inevitibility This only reinforces the other element of this alternate reality. Even if Texas would remain an independent nation, it wouldn't be independent for much longer (around a decade longer). The Republic of Texas was anchored by several huge problems. 1st Problem: Population When Texas was apart of Mexico, it was too sparsely populated, hence why Mexico allowed immigration from the United States to get more people into Texas. But in just a few short years, White Americans outnumbered Mexicans, and then Mexico than forbade immigration from the United States. 2nd Problem: Debt Debt also was a big problem for Texas. When Texas became independent, it was under a lot of debt, the Texan Government was basically broke and land holders couldn't get rights to their land. Most of Texas' income was reliant on agriculture. Rich comoddities such as oil wouldn't be found until several more decades down the road. 3rd Problem: Foreign Influence Texas was pretty much a border region between 2 superpowers for the time. The United States was eager to move west thanks in part to the motivational program known as "Manifest Destiny", and Mexico was a brand new independent power in North America that was going through political turmoil (which led to the rise of Santa Ana). Though, most of Texas' foreign problems were Mexico which refused to recognize Texas' independence and wouldn't stop fighting Texas as it knew that Texas was ill-prepared to fight another war against Mexico. Though, it could be possible that Texas could get help from the United States even if it's an independent nation. But there would be strings attached as Texas was in debt and underpopulated, it would have to be anneed by the USA if it won another war against Mexico. Civil War Though, it is highly unlikely that Texas would survive this long in any alternate reality. But let's just say that Texas in some unsusal circumstance does. The American Civil War was inevitable whether or not Texas remains independent or not. But because slavery was practiced in Texas, they would side with the Confederacy. Assuming that Texas still has yet to settle their issues with Mexico, the Confederacy would have to fight 2 enemies simultaneously which is the USA *and* Mexico, so the Civil War would end with a Union victory a few years earlier than it did in our reality. But would also have a more difficult time to fight with Mexico since both North and South being battle weary and weakened to fight a war with Mexico, but could still hold their own. That is all that i ahve to say in this page, what do you think if Texas remained independent? Until then, this is Johnny OTGS signing off.